We only had one whole day in Whistler so purchased a one day summer alpine pass so we had full access to all the gondolas and chairlifts on the the mountains. We arrived at the Whistler Blackcomb gondola station first thing in the morning and took one of the first gondolas of the day.

^{Heading up the mountain!}

We got off at the Rendezvous Lodge which was 1,850 meters high. There was a short alpine loop trail with a gravel path which we hiked – the views across all the mountains was beautiful. There were forest fires in the area and you could see a smokey mist in the distance.

^{The alpine loop at the Rendezvous Lodge}

The next gondola we needed to get on was the Peak to Peak Gondola. This would take us from Blackcomb mountain to Whistler Mountain. It has the longest free-span between towers in the world – at over 3km and also is the highest lift of this type at over 400 meters above the valley floor. We had watched it from the valley below and it looked impressive (and scary!).

We were in a lift with a family who now lived in Canada but were from the UK so got talking to them as they had emigrated to Whistler.

^{Views from the Peak to Peak}

At this point we were getting hungry and there was a lodge serving food so we all sat down to have lunch (despite it only being 11am) where we had BBQ buns and fries. We also saw the monument from the winter Olympics.

We then had a short hike down quite a steep gravel path as we wanted to take the chairlifts up to the Cloudraker Skybridge. These were the scariest chairlifts I had ever been on as there was quite a drop underneath and it was a very rocky mountain. They probably feel completely different in winter when the ground is covered in snow. I kept my eyes closed the whole time whilst Stu took all the photos!

^{Views from the Peak Express chairlifts – with the Cloudraker Skybridge in the background.}

When we got off the chairlifts we were 2180 meters high! The Cloudraker Skybridge is one of the highest suspension bridges in North America at 130m long and connects Whistler Peak to the West Ridge. I refused to walk across it – too scary for me – but Stu, Tom & Izzy did. I didn’t get very good photos the first time round so Tom happily went and stood on it again so I could redo the photos. Not wanting to be outdone Stu & Izzy then crossed it again!

We headed back down the mountain on the scary chairlifts and then returned to Whistler on the Whistler Village Gondola. We had a wander around the village, bought a Dairy Queen ice cream and returned to our apartment where we used the gym facilities. The next day we were beginning our journey to Banff.